Could Elon Musk become Donald Trump’s political advisor in the White House if he were re-elected? This prospect is not at all absurd: it would even be on the agenda between the business magnate and the former American president, according to revelations from the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, published this Thursday, May 30.
The two men would have had several discussions to find out how the boss of Tesla and Space control of the American border, says the WSJ. Nothing has been decided yet, and the project could very well not even come to fruition. But it testifies to the increasingly strong rapprochement between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who now discuss questions of technology and science, but also on immigration, several times a month, says the American newspaper.
A initially conflictual relationship
However, between Trump and Musk, the relationship did not start off in the best omens. While the businessman had already been part of a fairly large committee of big bosses advising Donald Trump on economic issues, he announced his departure from this group in 2017. At issue: the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement, and the climate skeptic positions of the ex-president. Trump, for his part, has never hidden his contempt for the electric car industry… Elon Musk’s main activity.
But these disagreements were not enough to prevent this rapprochement between the two men, which has greatly accelerated in recent months, notably during a meeting in Florida last March. And this is mainly due to a political shift by Elon Musk, who no longer hides his very conservative turn on societal issues, and quasi-libertarian on economic subjects. After his takeover of Twitter, now called He proudly appears alongside Argentine President Javier Milei, or defends former Brazilian head of state Jair Bolsonaro.
Sharing more and more observations with the former American president, Musk above all found a target in common with him: the current American president Joe Biden. He also clearly announced it in a message about last March: “It’s either a red wave in November (the color of the Republican Party, Editor’s note), or America is doomed. Imagine four more years with this situation getting worse.”
A turn to the right which is also accompanied by a certain dose of conspiracy, with a Trump touch. It must be said that Musk was already bordering on the limits during the pandemic, opposing all health restrictions, mocking their usefulness, and regularly relaying the most extravagant theories about Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s former chief medical advisor. Since then, the boss of Space A few weeks ago, he still explained onthat the Biden administration is “importing” millions of immigrants to vote in the next presidential elections, and that it is “very likely that we are setting the stage for something much worse than September 11.”
A particularly opportunistic rapprochement?
But common political struggles are not enough to explain this sudden rapprochement between two of the most controversial men in the United States. More opportunistic reasons are also in the air. For Musk, forgotten the Republican candidate’s big tirades against electric cars, the taunts against the Tesla model. According to the American media NBC, Trump’s re-election to the White House could have a significant influence in more than a dozen regulatory or legal battles that the business mogul is waging with the Biden administration or independent American federal agencies. Whether on the management of unions in his companies to the safety of Tesla vehicles, including the protection of privacy on the social network X, Elon Musk would greatly benefit from a relaxation of the standards and regulations promised by Donald Trump .
At the same time, Elon Musk assured Trump that he would invest alongside billionaire Nelson Peltz, also close to the former US president, in a “data-centered project aimed at preventing electoral fraud”, reveals the Wall Street Journal. Far from a coincidence, when we know Donald Trump’s obsession on this subject, believing that he was “stolen” the 2020 presidential election.
But contrary to what one might have imagined, Elon Musk assured that he would not finance Donald Trump’s campaign, even through a super PAC, these private structures guaranteeing the anonymity of donors. However, he still assured the Republican candidate that he would “use his influence to help defeat Biden, by galvanizing the support of strong allies,” reported the WSJ. Understand: try to convince the most influential business leaders not to support Joe Biden. Assurance of economic support at the top of the state for one, gain of legitimacy within business circles for the other: this rapprochement between Musk and Trump is ultimately perhaps only a marriage of reason. But which could well come to fruition in the living rooms of the White House.